Wheeling Nailers: Matthew Quercia Re-Signed for the 2025-2026 Season
Matthew “Q” Quercia returns to the Wheeling Nailers for his fourth professional season. Quercia posted a career year in Wheeling in the 2024-2025 season tallying 20 goals with and 13 assists. Per the Nailers, his goal tally tied for second most on the team in the 2024-2025 season. Quercia posted record PIMS on the team at 188. Quercia appeared in 68 regular season games.
Olde City Sports Network talked with Head Coach Derek Army about having the older veteran presence in a young locker room, including Quercia “I rely on those guys for everything. It's important at the start of the year is not something that I pick the captains, although they typically align with what I would want, but the players vote for their leadership group. From there, they have earned the respect of their peers, and then they're kind of a relay between the myself, the staff, the players into what we need, maybe schedule wise, what we need travel wise and what works. I think for us, it's something that we rely on them for everything.”
Quercia is known for his physicality on the ice along with his skill. Regarding his physicality, Quercia stated the following in an interview with Olde City Sports Network after a game in February “I think for me, my strongest skill is just my physicality and my speed with it. I feel I'm a bigger guy that can skate. So I'll use that to my advantage of being physical and being tough to play against, and having to fight if I have to fight, just other little things like that. Just kind of installing some fear into the other team is my biggest thing.”
The Massacchusetts native has dressed in 151 regular season games for the Nailers. He has tallied 34 goals with 39 assists and a total of 385 penalty minutes. He is 49 regular season games away from reaching 200 games as a Wheeling Nailer, which per the Nailers, has only been completed eight times before.
Samantha Wismer/Olde City Sports Network
Photos By: Stacey Gramlich/Samantha Wismer